Looking for love, er, commas in the wrong places

The comma earns the reputation of the most misused, abused, overused, and underused punctuation mark. This is yet another evidence of that—a blog comment found on a dating coaching website:

Why on earth does a very religious, straight woman chase after polyamorous gay men who are into (gasp) orgies?

That’s the impression I got when I first read her sentences. It took some time to parse them. Heaven help me. No wonder this lady is having such a hard time finding love!

Had she put commas on the right spots and crafted well-structured sentences, I would’ve understood her plight from the get-go. Oh, and comma splice doesn’t put spice in her love life, either. She applies commas liberally where they shouldn’t be.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not picking on her. After all, I was in unenviable lovelorn situations countless times, so I can totally feel her. But she could’ve communicated her frustration better. (She gets some brownie points for spelling, though.)

Prevent heartbreaks. Use commas judiciously.

One more thing: Love hurts, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to rewrite sentences for clarity.